TOKYO, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A new outbreak of bird flu is suspected in Japan after 23 birds died at a poultry farm in the southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday. Authorities are conducting preliminary tests on chickens at the farm, which keeps about 93,000 birds for their eggs, the ministry said in a news release. If confirmed, it would be the fourth bird flu case reported in Japan since the beginning of the year. On Monday, Japan confirmed its third outbreak of bird flu at a farm in the western prefecture of Okayama. Further tests are being carried out to confirm whether that case is due to the lethal H5N1 strain. The H5N1 virus has killed at least 164 people worldwide since 2003, most of them in Asia, and over 200 million birds have died from it or have been culled to prevent its spread. There have been no reported cases of human infection from the virus in Japan. Earlier this month, Japan had two H5N1 outbreaks among poultry in Miyazaki, the country's biggest poultry producing region. There had been no H5N1 cases in the country for three years. In 2004, Japan had four H5N1 poultry outbreaks between January and March, including one in Kyoto in western Japan in which 240,000 chickens were culled and 20 million eggs destroyed. Last week, authorities in Hong Kong confirmed a third case of H5N1 virus found in dead birds, while six people have died of bird flu in Indonesia since Jan. 1.
